President of RF Dmitry Medvedev together with representatives of European states will participate today in the ceremony dedicated to the Nord Stream gas pipeline construction. In the morning the Russian President will arrive at the bay Portovay near Vyborg - a starting point for the gas pipeline construction, Itar-Tass reports.
Among the European visitors - Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenend, Secretary of State of France for Foreign Trade, Anne-Marie Idrac, EU Energy Commissioner, Guenter Ottinger, former Chancellor of Germany, GerhardShreder, head of the consortium for the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline Matthias Warnig.
According to reports, the practical phase of the project implementation started April 6 - pipe laying of the pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The Nord Stream pipeline is a new export route for Russian gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea, by-passing the territory of transit countries. The length of the route from Vyborg to West German Greifswald makes up 1223 km, capacity - up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually. The launch of the first leg of Nord Stream is scheduled for 2011, the second - in 2012.